How to Login to GNOME and KDE on the Same Computer

Note: I put this solution together for those users who need to support both GNOME and KDE. It is also useful for administrators who are trying to evaluate both desktops for their company. This solution allows you to have both GNOME and KDE running at the same time.

Solution:

Login to GNOME or KDE as your regular user. Once you are logged in, your desktop session is setup on CNTL ALT F7.

Now we want to start a new desktop session. To do this, press CNTL ALT F2. You will find that you are at a terminal session and that you are being asked for a user name and password. You can login as the same user, but if you are running applications like gaim, you will only be able to run them on one desktop at at time. For this reason you may want to create another user, and then login as that user.

Once you have logged in, you need to startup another desktop by typing in the command startx kde -- :1 or startx gnome -- :1 depending on which one you don't already have started. If you receive an error about starting on :1 then you may already have something running that is taking up the :1 desktop (like vncserver).Once started, the new desktop session can be accessed using CNTL ALT F8.

Now you can switch back and forth by choosing CNTL ALT F7 and CNTL ALT F8.